When Steel Falls, Evil Reigns
by TheBigDamnSavior
Summary: After Kara fights Reign, Alex and Eliza try to save Kara's life as the superfriends each deal with the aftermath in their own way. As Kara fights to get back to her family, she confronts some uncomfortable emotions and learns a thing or two about Reign from the very person who helped create her. When the final battle comes, who will win? (Check out the new Ch. 4)
1. When Steel Falls

As much as I wish I did, I do not own Supergirl or any of the characters.

This story has brief graphic mentions of blood in terms of a medical setting. If you would like to avoid that, both are mentioned during the parts where Alex and Eliza are operating. Otherwise, enjoy and please leave a comment. This story is currently a one-shot, but I am currently considering writing more.

* * *

Lena Luthor _hates_ Christmas.

She has experienced 23 Christmases in her life. The first three were spent with her mother, a woman who was nothing but a vague memory of warmth and safety. But her mother died and Lena found herself in the Luthor household. Her next 17 Christmases were spent being paraded around as a trophy, a testament to the Luthor family's kindness and philanthropy. Lex had made the first few bearable, but then he went off to college and Lionel died soon after, leaving Lena to contend with Lillian's spite alone. The once unbearable Luthor Christmases became utterly insufferable. Eventually, Lex went mad and Lena found herself thrust behind the CEO desk as she tried to salvage the mess he had created in his single-minded quest to destroy Superman. That was the first Christmas that she spent alone behind her desk with a glass of red wine and a plate as Christmas carols softly played on the radio. She spent the next two much the same way, one in Metropolis and one in National City after she had been given full control of Luthor Corp. The last 23 Christmases had brought the youngest Luthor nothing, but heartache and loneliness. Lena had hoped that the person who had already brought so much light into her life would also change her relationship with Christmas. Lena had hoped that this year would be different.

Three months ago, her best friend had saved her from certain death and finally confessed to the worst kept secret in National City. Kara had finally admitted that she was Supergirl, much to Lena's relief as she had been getting tired of having to pretend to be oblivious. The shininess of the new relationship hadn't begun to wear off yet, so the two were in a blissful bubble… until now.

Until this moment where Lena is watching her girlfriend falling from the top of a skyscraper. Where Lena is watching as the blur of blue and red (too much red) … fall to the ground with anearthshattering (and equally sickening) crash. Where Lena is running, surging forward toward the crater, trying to get to the bloody, broken body in the hole. Where Lena is screaming for Supergirl (and internally for Kara) as she scrambles over the mangled concrete to get closer to the love of her life as she lies there, unmoving in that hole. When Lena finally reaches Kara, she searches for a place to touch Kara without hurting her as her eyes find the charred, blackened crest of the Great House of El, now just as broken and burnt as the bearer of its crest. She gently cupped Kara's bruised faces and whispers her name as tears splashed onto Kara's face and left pink spots in the sea of red. So once again, for Christmas, Lena got nothing but pain.

* * *

Alex Danvers could count on one hand how many times she had seen her sister bleed and still have plenty of fingers left over. It made the scene in front of her all the more jarring, but Alex didn't have the time to contemplate that fact, especially now, not with Kara lying there in that hole bleeding, the life leaking out of her. The world seemed to screech to a halt and zoom past her at the same time, deafeningly silent and booming all at once as she ran forward, aching to get closer to Kara. Alex dropped to her knees when she finally reached Kara's pale form, dimly disappointed that the concrete didn't crumble under her, too. The blood pounded in her ears as Alex called for a gurney and checked Kara's faint pulse with trembling fingers. She hadn't even noticed Lena Luthor kneeling over her sister much the same way, tears dripping onto the fallen hero's face, creating small patches of pink in rivers and oceans of red (so much red). It wasn't until the CEO whispered her sister's name in a voice that was so utterly broken and reached out to touch Kara's cheek ever so gently that Alex even noticed that she wasn't alone in the crater. It wasn't until they had loaded Kara into the ambulance, ripping through the streets to get to the DEO that Alex's brain had a split second to process thoughts other than medical facts and her horror at the events of the battle that Alex realized that Lena _knew._

* * *

Maggie Sawyer was sitting at her desk at the NCPD, angrily filling out paperwork, when she saw the news. She had just finished a report about her latest arrest in an alien smuggling ring that she had helped stop when the breaking news alert came from the TV and a hush fell over the entire Science Division. Maggie looked up and saw something she never thought she would: a bloodied Supergirl being lifted out of a crater in the sidewalk and rushed into a black van on a stretcher with Alex leading the charge. She made the mistake of looking down at the headline. It read "Supergirl Dead?" as the ticker on the bottom described a mysterious figure clad in black that had been wreaking havoc in National City all day and had finally ended her day by taking down the Girl of Steel. She jumped up from her chair so quickly that it went clattering to the floor, grabbed her keys, and ran to her car, completely forgetting that it was below freezing outside.

* * *

Lucy Lane sighed as she poured herself a cup of coffee in the break room. She was stuck working Christmas again. It wasn't that she had anyone to spend it with, but being almost alone in the DEO command center all the way out in the desert made her feel all the lonelier. She sank down into a surprisingly comfortable plastic chair and flipped on ZNN. She watched as the anchor recap the day's events and mention that NORAD was "tracking" Santa for the 62nd year, bringing joy to children all over the world. She chuckled at the thought of children intently tracking Santa as he delivered presents. She was pulled out of reverie when the newscaster announced that there was breaking news. That was when she saw the footage of a mysterious woman dressed in black mercilessly beating Supergirl and shooting lasers at the sigil of the Great House of El sending Supergirl careening into the sky. The coffee mug slipped from her fingers as she saw the image of Kara lying broken and bleeding in a concrete crater as one brunette rushed to her, followed by another not long after. The screen read "Christmas Tragedy: Supergirl Presumed Dead."

The normally composed and stoic Army major barreled into the command center and began yelling for agents to get information from the base in National City. A single voice carried through on the line, Winn's, as Lucy demanded information. "We don't know, Lucy. This person has been terrorizing the city all day. Our visitors from the future are refusing to tell us anything," he said bitterly. "Alex is bringing Kara here soon. She might be able to tell us more later." Lucy grunted in acknowledgment and thanked Winn before ending the call. She turned to the nearest agent and requested a helicopter be readied to take her to National City so she could join her friends in the vigil that was no doubt forming.

* * *

James Olsen has seen a lot of things in his life. He has lived in not one, but two cities with superheroes so witnessing huge battles was nothing new for him. But seeing his friend being beaten so mercilessly, so savagely was. He was so shocked that he could nothing but stare as Kara fell from the sky and landed on the sidewalk just feet from him and Lena. The two CatCo CEOs had been out for dinner to discuss how to approach leading the company now that there were two CEOs at the helm. They had been walking down the street when the battle began and had seen Kara's descent from the top of a skyscraper as her body plunged to the ground. He had pulled Lena back and tried to hold her back from the crater, not knowing about the recent change in the relationship between Lena and Kara. Lena frantically tried to escape his arms as she begged him to let her get to Kara and as soon as he heard how her voice cracked, he let her go. But he stayed back, unsure of his place, too shocked to properly process what this all meant. When Alex carted Kara away to the DEO, James crept closer to the crater to find a broken Lena Luthor staring off into the distance as the sirens grew further and further. He heard Lena quietly whimper Kara's name as she hugged her and said, "Don't worry, Lena. I'm going to take you to her. Come on."

That was when he heard Lena whisper, "I love her. What if I don't get to tell her?" and suddenly he understood Lean's desperation, her fear.

"You will," he reassured her as he took the young CEO by the elbow and gently led to her to his car. He drove to the DEO as quickly as he could, avoiding the broken roads left in the wake of the faceoff between Kara and Reign. He screeched to a halt in the DEO garage and the pair jumped out of the car and rushed to the elevator. As soon as the elevator reached the top floor, James took Lena to the waiting room and went to the command center after making sure that Lena had everything she needed. He ran past the med bay and did not dare glance inside, afraid of what he would see. James took his place next to Winn as agents bustled around trying to get a handle on the mayhem raging in National City.

* * *

J'onn J'onzz was at a loss as he stood in the DEO watching the screens as they displayed the almost apocalyptic battle taking place. Unfortunately, any attempt to help Supergirl would likely end with Reign beating the life out of anyone who came to help. The stoic Martian was at a loss about what to do as he watched Kara drop from the top of the building. He prayed that she would pull herself up and stop herself from plummeting to the ground. He gasped when he saw the dust cloud rise and the image of a bloody Supergirl in a crater in the street. As he watched Lena rush to Kara's side, followed by Alex, he began to issue orders to his agents. Calls were placed to the President's Chief of Staff, the desert base of the DEO in an attempt to get in contact with Director Lane, and to the NCPD science division to put them on high alert. Just as he got off the phone with the desert base, having learned that Director Lane was on her way, J'onn heard the commotion coming from the elevators and turned in time to see Alex rush Kara into the med bay followed by several other agents and Dr. Hamilton. J'onn realized that they needed one more person at the DEO to help save Kara's life and so he ran to the balcony and took off.

* * *

Eliza Danvers was enjoying a quiet evening as she sat on the couch and flipped channels trying to find something to watch. As much as she enjoyed Christmas, she didn't feel up to watching Christmas movies. They made the sting of losing Jeremiah for the second time hurt just a little more and Christmas was not for mourning and pain. Eliza Danvers did not know just how wrong this assessment was. As she flipped channels, she accidentally landed on ZNN as they had begun reporting about the fall of Supergirl at the hands of a mysterious villain. Eliza jumped up from the couch and rushed to the kitchen to get the phone. Just as she was trying to decide whether to call J'onn or Alex, she heard the fluttering of a cape and the thud of boots before a knock sounded from her front door. She opened it to see an unusually emotional J'onn J'onzz on her porch. "Eliza... It's Kara—," he began.

"I know. I saw what happened when I accidentally turned on the news. Take me to National City, J'onn. They need me."

"You have no idea how right you are, Eliza. Let's go," the Martian said as he offered a hand to Eliza.

* * *

 _At the DEO…_

Alex stood over the head of Kara's gurney as she looked at the monitor. She yelled out for an intubation kit as Kara's oxygen levels began to drop. "Get me the paddles! Her pulse is getting weaker; we're probably going to need them." Alex was, unfortunately, correct in her prediction and Kara's heart stopped just as the cart was wheeled in. "Charging to 200! Clear!" Alex shouted as she shocked Kara. The blonde's back arched upward and her body flopped back onto the gurney. "Again! 250!" Alex tried again with no success. "300!" Kara's body sagged onto the gurney once more. "350!" The faint beeping that came from the monitor told Alex that she had been successful. "We need to get her into surgery now!" Alex yelled as she got ready to move the gurney across the hall to the surgical suite.

As the group exited the room, Alex was surprised to see a windswept Eliza standing anxiously in the hallway. "Oh god. Kara," she gasped as she first laid eyes on her adoptive daughter. "How can I help?" she asked, her eyes searching for Alex's.

"Mom, thank god, you're here. She needs surgery and I am going to need an extra set of hands." Eliza nodded and ran into the surgical suite with Dr. Hamilton to scrub in. As Alex began rattling off Kara's multitude of injuries, the last detail caught everyone particularly off guard. "She's solar flared. I don't think there's any solar energy left in any of her cells. She used it all to stay alive, otherwise, her injuries wouldn't be this severe. They would have shown some indication of healing, but there isn't any."

"What does that mean, sweetie?"

"It means that- well, Kara's completely human, which means we're gonna have to treat this as though anyone else who works for the DEO got injured. In fact, we have to take extra precautions. She has absolutely no immune system right now and we have to use extra sedation and pain meds. She has no pain tolerance since before today, no one has ever been able to do this to her without a solar flare first. Honestly, this is the worst thing I have ever seen happen to her or anyone. No one else could have survived this level of damage, but now we have to keep her alive long enough to be able to get her to heal and the only way to do that is surgery. We're going to have work fast.

"Anderson, go to the blood bank and get all the O- you can find. Vasquez, I need you to set up the solar bed for Kara so we can get her in there as soon as we close. Price, make sure the hallway is going to be cleared when we move her. And Demos, if we get any more visitors, which we no doubt will, direct them to the waiting room." Once Alex was done giving commands, the agents scrambled to do as she asked and the medical staff started getting to work on saving Supergirl's life. Alex grabbed the portable x-ray machine and scanned Kara's body to assess her injuries. Once the scan was complete, Eliza and Alex changed into scrubs and took positions on either side of the operating table. Alex picked up a scalpel, nodded her head, and began the incision (secretly sickened at how easily the steel blade sliced into the Girl of Steel's body). As Alex made the incision, blood began pouring out of Kara's body at an alarming rate, spilling onto the floor, splattering Alex and Eliza's shoes and scrubs. "Fuck! Someone get the blood ready!" Alex ordered, panic seeping into her voice despite her best efforts.

* * *

As Alex and Eliza began operating, Maggie Sawyer rushed through the elevator doors and immediately went to the command center to find J'onn. She found him standing in front of a bay of screens, each broadcasting a different news channel. Each channel was speculating on Kara's fate and about the identity of the woman in black. ZNN continued declaring that in a Christmas tragedy Supergirl was killed, while GNN and some local news channels thought that Supergirl was near death at a government agency that was desperately trying to save her life. The channels owned by CatCo were being conspicuously… hopeful, refusing to proclaim the Supergirl was dead or nearly so. Maggie took a moment to take it all in before approaching J'onn and drawing him out of his trance. "J'onn… is she… is Kara alive?" she asked the back of J'onn's head.

The Martian turned around to face Maggie and she could swear that his eyes were slightly red-rimmed. "For now," he sighed. "Alex and Eliza are trying to save her, but it doesn't look good, Maggie." Maggie gasped and nodded.

"Is there anyone here for her?" Maggie asked, vaguely hinting at her curiosity about Lena Luthor's presence.

"If you mean Lena, then yes." Maggie opened her mouth to say something before J'onn held his hand up and continued, "Before you say anything, yes, I am aware of what is going on between them and no, I don't have a problem with it."

"Is she in the waiting room?" As soon as J'onn gave an affirmative answer, Maggie turned and went to find the young CEO. She found herself walking past the med bay, but couldn't bring herself to look inside, afraid of seeing Alex and the state that Kara is in. She picked up her pace and walked briskly to the waiting room, stopping when she saw Lena with her head in her hands, shoulders quaking as quiet, restrained sobs left the young woman's mouth. "Oh Lena," Maggie whispered as she slid into the chair next to Lena's and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. If Lena was shocked at Maggie's sudden presence, she didn't show it. Maggie rubbed Lena's arm as she gently tried to calm the younger woman down.

Maggie didn't know how long they had been sitting there when Lena finally spoke. "What if she dies, Maggie?"

"She won't. You have to believe that, Lena."

"You didn't _see_ her, Maggie. What that woman did to her- God. It was the worst thing I've ever seen. She dropped her from the top of a skyscraper like a plaything. She spent all that time tossing Kara around like a fucking ragdoll!" Lena began, her voicing getting louder with each sentence. "Kara isn't supposed to be able to bleed on this planet. She's not supposed to be able to get injured when she has her powers, but she did. She was bleeding from everywhere. Her forehead, her ears, her nose, her mouth. Her face was covered in it. So, no, Maggie, I don't have to believe that. Not with what I've seen."

"Little Danvers is tough, Lena. And she loves you. She won't go down without fighting until the end."

"That's the thing. She fought. She fought and she _lost_."

"She may have lost the battle, but she didn't lose the war." Maggie and Lena jumped as their eyes scanned the room for a source until they landed on its owner.

* * *

It was a little after 11:30 pm when Lucy Lane's helicopter finally arrived at the DEO. She quickly hopped out and sprinted down the stairs until she reached the command center three stories down. "J'onn, what is going on?" Lucy asked as she walked up to the silent man. J'onn simply shook his head, at a loss for words as he tried to catch up her up.

"It's bad, Lucy," Winn said as he spun around in his chair. That woman beat Kara like she was nothing. I've never seen anything like it. I mean, it wasn't even this bad when Kara fought Superman back in April. Even Superman couldn't make her bleed, but she did."

"Is Alex with her?"

"Yea, Alex and Eliza are operating on Kara now with Dr. Hamilton. It's been about an hour and a half now. They won't be done for a while. Maggie and Lena are in the waiting room if you want to go there."

"Wait, Maggie?" Lucy asked, the shock permeating her voice.

"Yea she showed up about 15 minutes ago. She's sitting with Lena."

"I'm shocked that she came after everything that happened between her and Alex. Also, you keep saying 'Lena' like I'm supposed to know who that is."

"I think that Maggie came to be here for Alex. No matter what happened between them, Maggie still loves her and she knows what Kara getting hurt does to Alex. I'm surprised that you haven't heard about Lena. She's a pretty big name, she owns CatCo, L-Corp. You know, the big CEO lady."

"If I didn't know any better, I would think that you mean that Lena _Luthor_ is in the _DEO_ holding vigil for _Supergirl_. But that's crazy, right?" Winn shook his head. "Wow, Little Danvers has interesting taste in friends. But I mean, _a Luthor_ , guys!"

"She's helped us more than I can count. All without asking for anything in return. Lena is very different from her family," J'onn explained. Lucy shrugged and nodded.

"If you guys trust her, so do I. I'm going to go join them," Lucy said, hooking her thumb to point behind her. "Don't want to have too many cooks in the kitchen. Plus, I have a feeling that I'm needed elsewhere right now."

* * *

As the group in the waiting room continued to grow, Alex and Eliza were struggling to save Kara's life. Rivers of blood continued pouring out of the blonde body on the operating table as the mother-daughter duo tried to find the source of the bleeding. "If she keeps losing this much, she won't make it."

"I know, sweetie," Eliza whispered mournfully. Eliza was much more unnerved by the feeling of her adoptive daughter's hot blood covering her hands, her scrubs, her shoes than she let on, but if she didn't hold it together, Alex would fall apart and they _had_ to save Kara. They were able to find the bleed eventually, but not after having to transfuse 10 pints of blood into Kara's veins. Alex got to work repairing the damage done to Kara's organs as Eliza took a step back, allowing Dr. Hamilton to step in for her. Eliza made the mistake of looking down at herself as she took a deep breath and was hit with the sudden urge to vomit as she took in the sheer amount of blood covering her clothes. She took several sips of water to tamp down her nausea. It was another hour before Alex declared that they had done all they could and now all they could do was watch. Eliza looked up at the time and saw that the clock read 1:07 am. _It's Christmas_ , Eliza thought. _What a way to celebrate._ Mother and daughter parted ways as Eliza went to shower and Alex decided to simply change into a fresh pair of scrubs as she had to go update everyone.

Alex Danvers quietly walked into the center of the DEO as the agents around her continued to try to get a hand on the confusion in National City. She walked up to J'onn and was about to fill him in on Kara's condition when she finds him staring at the TV. ZNN was broadcasting footage of a small candlelight vigil forming around the crater where Kara's body had fallen several hours ago, now a pile of bouquets lay there in place of her sister. The audio filtered in and she heard the people sing Christmas carols as they slowly swayed.

" _And when those blue snowflakes start falling… That's when those blue memories start calling..."_

Alex had forgotten that it was December 25th…. That it was Kara's favorite holiday. But Kara wasn't here to celebrate this time. She was in a coma that she might never come out of instead.

* * *

Maggie and Lucy had both received calls from their respective jobs and have to step away to take them, leaving Lena to sit alone. Alex walked into the waiting room and saw Lena sitting in the corner, her hand in her hands and her shoulders slumped under the weight of her grief. Alex crouched down in front her and gently placed a shaking hand on Lena's shoulder. "Lena?" Alex asked carefully as though she was afraid that Lena would fall apart. Lena looked up with red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes that looked like a storm was raging as her emotions warred with each other. She didn't say a word as she carefully straightened her back and wrapped her arms around her waist.

With a blank face, Lena asked, "Is she dead? Is Kara dead?"

"No. She's still alive. Barely, but alive nonetheless." Alex paused and swallowed before beginning again, "Lena—"

The news that Kara was still alive caused something to break in Lena as her eyes welled up and her lips quivered almost imperceptibly. "Alex, please, don't make me leave. You may not understand or approve of our relationship, but I love her. God, I love her so much that it hurts. Everyone in my life has left. _Except her,_ " Lena's voice broke. "I can't leave her. I know she's unconscious and she doesn't even know that I'm here, but I just can't," Lena said as tears began streaming down her face once more. Alex sat down next to the young woman and gathered her up into a hug, letting Lena cry onto her shoulder.

"Lena, I would never do that. I would never make you leave. I've seen the way you two look at each other. You look at her like she hung the moon and stars in the sky. I'll never be the one to take you away from her or her from you. I figured that you would come here. I saw James with you before and again in the command center, so I had a feeling he brought you. I wanted to see how you were holding up. None of that could have been easy. I want to know if you're okay and Lena Luthor, don't you dare lie to me." Alex heard Lena take a shuddering breath before answering.

"No, Alex, I am not okay. Far from it, but I will be much better when we catch this psycho."

"Do you want to go sit with her? The techs will move her into the med bay when they're done bandaging her up, which should be in a few minutes." Alex stood and helped Lena up before taking her to a chair near the sunlamps that were waiting for Kara. As Alex walked away from the recovery room, she bumped into a face she hadn't seen in weeks. "Maggie…" Alex whispered.

Maggie gave Alex her signature smile and greeted her, "Hey, Danvers. How's your sister?"

"She's in a coma that she may not come out of."

"Oh."

"Hey, can we talk?" the two women asked at the same time. Alex nodded and led Maggie to an empty conference room a few yards away.

"Do you want to start?" Maggie asked Alex, secretly hoping that her ex would say the same thing she was thinking about.

"Maggie, do you know what Kara almost dying has made me realize?" When Maggie shook her head, Alex continued. "Life is short and I want to have what Kara and Lena have, I want what we had back."

"Alex-," Maggie began.

"I don't want to have kids, if it means that I can't have _you_ in my life," Alex interrupted, her voice thick with unshed tears.

"No, Alex, we'll have kids. We'll have all kinds of kids because I _can't_ live without you and our 10 kids. These last three months have been miserable and I—."

"Maggie, I don't want to force you into this."

"You're not forcing me, Alex. This is a decision that I made. Alex, after today, I realized that there are scarier things than having kids. I was so afraid of being a bad mom that I wouldn't hear you out and pushed you away instead of talking it out like we usually do. I was afraid I was too damaged to be a good mom, but our kids will have you, and Kara, and your mom, and the rest of the superfriends." Alex chuckled at that. "Lena had the worst mother in the world and look at how she turned out. How much worse of a job could we possibly do? I want you _back_ , Alex. _Please._ "

"So, do I, Maggie. More than anything." Maggie surged forward and captured Alex's lips in a searing kiss. Alex put her hands on Maggie's face as she deepened the kiss and was somewhat sad when they had to part for air. As they stood with their foreheads touching and arms around each other, Alex whispered, "Just to be clear, we don't need to have 10 kids. Two will do just fine," and for the first time in weeks, Alex and Maggie laughed with actual joy instead of bitterness. As the newly reunited couple walked out of the room hand in hand, Alex felt for the first time that there was some hope this Christmas.


	2. Steel Rising

And I'm back with Chapter 2... Sorry that this one's a little shorter than the last one, I didn't want to break up the events of the next one.

Trigger warnings for brief allusions to self-harm and depression during the first conversation between Kara and her parents.

* * *

Lena walked into the sunroom to find that it was a surprisingly comfortable looking area. Kara's sunbed was set up next to a large floor to ceiling window and a wheeled stool on the left side, opposite the window and all the other medical equipment. As Lena looked around the room, she also noticed a plush, rather comfortable looking, black couch in the corner facing the sunbed, with a large coffee table and a lamp next to it. Lena assumed that this was where Alex usually spent her time when Kara was recovering. Lena was still standing in the middle of the room, wondering exactly how in the world she got here, when the medical staff rolled Kara into the room. Lena stood rooted to the ground, frozen as she watched Dr. Hamilton hang Kara's IV bags, connect her ventilator, and adjust the electrodes connected to her chest, making sure nothing was accidentally disconnected in the process of moving the blonde.

As Dr. Hamilton left the room, she put her hand on Lena's crossed arms and told Lena, "I know it looks bad, but you have to have hope, okay?" Lena could only nod. The young woman was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, all her sorrow and worry would come spilling out. Once she was alone with Kara, Lena shakily walked over to the stool and wheeled it over to Kara's bedside and sank down onto it. She reached out with a quivering hand and wrapped her pale fingers around Kara's somehow paler, strangely cold hand. Lena scanned Kara's body with her eyes taking in the fresh stitches on her forehead, the black eye, the various bandages wrapped around Kara's torso whose texture was vaguely discernable under the ghastly hospital gown, the tube coming out of her chest, the cast on her wrist, the various other bruises that littered Kara's lower body. It was too much for Lena to bear. She had known that Kara's condition was severe, but she didn't anticipate this many injuries to be present.

Lena's right hand flew up to her mouth to try to contain the sobs that threatened to erupt from her mouth, but she was unable to stop the tears streaming down her face. Lena jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped her head around to see Maggie standing behind her, Alex clinging to her waist. Lena smiled at the sight of the couple together again, only to start crying again as she imagined herself and Kara being together like that. Maggie kept her hand on Lena's shoulder as Alex let go of her to wrap her arms around the grieving Luthor. As Lena's body shook from the force of her efforts to contain her anguish, Alex felt herself unable to contain to repress her own heartache as well. As Lena sobbed, tears streamed down the older brunette's face as she tried to keep her composure just a little longer. Maggie looked over at Alex and gestured for her to come closer. As soon as Alex was within arm's reach, Maggie pulled her into a tight hug as Alex tucked her head between the shorter woman's neck and shoulder as her restraint slipped completely and Alex Danvers too dissolved into harsh sobs and hot tears. Even the normally stoic Maggie Sawyer was unable to keep herself from letting a few tears fall as she, too, lamented the state her almost sister-in-law was in. And so, the three women found themselves as the perfect (in the worst sense) example of a distraught family standing, grief-stricken at the bedside of a severely injured family member.

After several long moments, Alex was able to regain enough self-control to be able to speak. She gently pried herself out of Maggie's grasp and turned to Lena. "She's going to be okay. You know, that right?" Alex assured, sounding like she was reassuring herself of that fact as well as Lena.

Lena let out a wet chuckle and replied, "Dr. Hamilton said almost the same thing when she was walking out of the room earlier?"

"You know Amelia?" Alex asked, confused.

"No," Lena shook her head, "but she had an ID badge on." Alex couldn't help but laugh at that. Lena's face grew serious as she made eye contact with Alex. "But Alex—is she though? Can she come back from all of this?" Lena asked as she gestured to Kara's prone form lying under the sunlamps.

"She will, Lena. I know my sister. She always fights to come back to the ones she loves and that includes you. Kara is willing to fight to the end to get back to you."

"Alex, look at what this woman in black has done to her. I don't even know the details, but seeing what condition Kara come out of that fight in—I can't help but have a little voice in the back of my head telling me that this—"

"Lena. Listen to me when I say this. You have to have hope. We all do. Do you know what that "S" on their chests stand for?"

"It's the Kara's house's crest."

"Yes. And do you know what the motto of the House of El is? It's " _El mayarah._ " It means "Stronger Together," which means as long as we're all together, we can get through _anything._ Even this." Lena nodded at the fierce conviction in Alex's voice. "Do you want to know what happened to Kara? I know that you like to have as much information as possible," Alex asked, her voice softer than it was just moments ago.

"Yes, I would. I appreciate you not keeping me in the dark about all this. I would check her chart, but honestly, I'm afraid of what I'm going to see."

"Brace yourself, Lena. This is going to be difficult," Alex cleared her throat before continuing. "She has a Grade III concussion, a broken orbital, several small skull fractures, some broken and\or cracked ribs—most of that is from the fall—she also bruised her liver and kidneys, significant internal bleeding, and a broken wrist. She has a collapsed lung and a pneumothorax, as well as burns on her chest under where the seal was. But the biggest problem is that she completely depleted her cell's stored solar energy as her body tried to keep her alive. Frankly, if she wasn't an alien or if she had solar flared earlier, she would have died."

"But now she's solar flared and is in a coma?"

"Yes. She's essentially human and we have an even bigger problem. Her cells don't seem to be absorbing any of the solar energy from the sun lamps and we don't know why."

* * *

Kara groaned as she woke up and squinted her eyes as the reddish rays of Rao's light hit her. She quickly sat up when she realized that she was in the presence of a red sun instead of the yellow sun she had grown used to during her time on Earth. Kara leaped off the bed and rushed to the window of what recognized as her old room. The red rays bounced off the silver towers atop the many buildings of Argo City and bathed the room in a red hue, filling Kara with a sense of nostalgia for her old life, for her planet, for her family. _Her family_. _Where was she?_

"Good to see you awake, Kara." The blonde jumped as she whirled around to find her parents standing behind her.

"Oh no. Did I get attacked by the Black Mercy again? This isn't real. This isn't real. This _is not_ real," Kara repeated to herself.

Alura stepped forward and placed a hand on Kara's cheek. Unable to resist, Kara leaned into her mother's touch, having missed it in the many decades since Krypton's… _demise_. "My dear, this is very much real, but you are not being affected by the Black Mercy. Kara, you have to make a choice. You must choose whether to return to Earth, to your life, to your family, to fight Reign once more, or to stay here with your father and I, to die."

"I don't know if I can," Kara replied through her tears. "I have dreamt of reuniting with you in Rao's light more than I could ever admit. You don't know how hard this has been."

"Oh, my darling," Alura said as she pulled her crying daughter into a tight hug.

"I spent 24 years in that pod... alone, reliving our last moments over and over, hearing nothing but silence. It was torture and then I ended up on a strange planet, found Kal-El, and got abandoned all over again. The Danvers are amazing people, but in those first weeks, I couldn't help but resent everyone, Eliza, Alex, Kal, and even you—because you sent me _away_ , even if it was to save me. All I wanted in those moments when I wasn't trying to blend in—to be human—was to be reunited with you again. For you to have let me _die_ with you, just so that I wouldn't be so alone anymore. But on Earth, I was invulnerable—I couldn't get hurt—I couldn't hurt _myself_ and I just wanted someone who could understand. Someone who had lost everything, lost their whole lives just like me, but there was no one who understood," Kara continued before bursting into tears again. Alura tightened her hold around her grieving daughter as Zor-El hugged the two women as well, only making Kara cry harder.

* * *

Lena, Alex, and Maggie were soon joined in their vigil by Eliza, who with J'onn's help had another couch brought into the sunroom. Alex and Maggie curled up on one of the couches and eventually dozed off, the stress of the day finally catching up to them. Eliza smiled softly at her daughter and her… Maggie as she draped a blanket over their sleeping forms. Turning away from the pair on the couch, Eliza approached Lena as she sat grasping Kara's hand and staring at her bruised face. Through her stupor, Lena noticed that the medical staff hadn't cleaned all blood off Kara's face in their haste to save her life. As she moved to get up, Lena felt Eliza's soft hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down onto her stool. "Don't worry, dear. I'll take care of it. You just sit with her. She needs it." Lena nodded and Eliza went to the sink to get a small bowl and several washcloths. She returned with a bowl of warm water and a stack of blue washcloths and began gently washing the blood from Kara's face, first from her forehead, then from the corner of her mouth, then one ear and the other. By the time she was done, the water in the bowl was tinged a dark red and Kara's face was mostly clear from the blood, revealing the swelling from the bruises and cracked facial bones.

Lena sniffled at the sight of Kara's bruised face; she had run out of tears about an hour ago. Eliza walked over to her, surprised by how you and small Lena looked in this moment. She wrapped her arms around Lena's shoulders, waiting to speak until Lena's stiff body relaxed a little. "She loves you, you know? Even before you began dating, every time we talked on the phone, she would always have a story about how amazing you are. She told me so much about you that I almost feel as though I've known for years, even though this is the first time we've met." Lena smiled at Eliza as the older woman kept speaking, "Kara told me about your hopes for L-Corp, about how you want to make it a force for good. I have no doubt that you will. I've never seen Kara believe in someone as fiercely and as relentlessly as she believes in you."

"I don't deserve her faith," Lena whispered.

"But Lena, you do," Eliza proclaimed forcefully. "You grew up with a horrible evil family and yet here you are, a truly good person. Your mother is as close to the devil as we can get and your brother killed so many people in his quest to kill Superman. And yet here you are, bringing good back to the Luthor name, sitting at the bedside of your _alien_ girlfriend, who you loved and continue to love regardless of whether she's human or not. You deserve all the faith in the world and people will come to see you for the force of good that you truly are. But for now, I believe in you, as do Kara, Alex, Maggie, and the rest of this little family that Kara managed to cobble together."

"Thank you, Dr. Danvers. For your faith in me and for accepting me, us, all of this."

"Lena, none of this 'Dr. Danvers' business. It's Eliza to Maggie and Eliza to you, too."

"Alright, well, thank you, Eliza. Truly."

"Anytime, dear." Eliza pulled up a stool to sit by Lena's side as the rest of the superfriends and several DEO agents filtered in and out of the room, each holding vigil for Kara in their own way. James came in between his stints as CatCo's CEO and as Guardian, while Winn came in on his breaks and would occasionally eat lunch by Kara's side as he regaled Eliza and Lena with the tales of some of Kara's misadventures as CatCo, including the coffee incident of 2016 that no one was ever allowed to mention. J'onn came in when he was off duty and would update the four women on the status of the hunt for the woman in black, as would Lucy in between telling stories of Kara's exploits at the desert base, including the stories of Kara and fear of her bat "friend" from the caves.

As the sun rises on Christmas Day, everyone in the room is in various states of sleep. Some, like Alex and Maggie, are out cold, while some like Lena and James are somewhere between dead asleep and wide awake. J'onn smiles slightly as he walks into the room and sees his Earth children resting peacefully for the most part, a stark contrast from the events of the night before. He stands in the room silently, almost as though he was keeping guard over his sleeping friends and family. About 30 minutes later, Vasquez walked into the room and tapped J'onn on the shoulder. "Sir, you may want to turn on ZNN. You should see this." J'onn walked out of the sunroom and headed for his office, where he switched on the television.

" _It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Supergirl, the Guardian on National City was indeed gravely injured last night during a fight. There is currently no new information about her whereabouts or her condition. Rest assured that the United States government is doing everything possible to assist National City's law enforcement agencies in keeping the city safe. I would now like to turn over this podium to my Press Secretary, Cat Grant, who as you may know is a close friend of Supergirl's. Merry Christmas, everyone."_

J'onn watched as Cat Grant appeared at the press podium, where moments ago the President had given a statement. _"Hello, everyone. I would like to begin this press conference by addressing the rumors that Supergirl has been killed. Supergirl is_ not _dead to the best of my knowledge. If she was, the public would have been informed. Supergirl is currently in very serious condition at a federal agency that is treating her injuries. Her current status is classified as grave and unfortunately, it is not clear_ whether _she will survive. Given my relationship with the Girl of Steel, it pains me to have to relay this information. However, the American public deserves to know the truth. I will not be taking questions at this time. We will hold another press conference whenever we receive an update on her condition. Merry Christmas, everyone. Please go home and hug your families today."_

As Cat Grant walked off the stage, ZNN switched its footage to show the streets of National City. A large pile of flowers accumulated at the spot where Supergirl fell and as the camera zoomed in, J'onn could discern several teddy bears, cards, photographs, and some pieces of Supergirl memorabilia scattered amongst the flowers, as well as several dozens of people standing around the site, a shocking site at6 am on Christmas Day. As the helicopter moved on, it flew near the CatCo building, where another tribute to Supergirl had popped up. In front of the building, citizens had put posters, flowers, candles, and other items wishing Supergirl well or mourning her supposed death.

* * *

"Although I understand why you sent me away, I still don't _understand._ You saved my life and I've done nothing, but resent you for it and resent the very people who made my life on Earth bearable."

"Kara, some things you just can't understand. They are not logical, they are just decisions and events that defy our attempts to explain. Your father and I did not want you to die on Krypton with us, but we also did not want for you to be alone. We had no choice, but to send you away. Our time in Rao's light has taught us that burdening you with the responsibility to keep the memory of all of Krypton alive and to protect Kal-El was an unfair weight to place on your shoulders."

"It was. Do you know how much time I spent being angry at you? Do you know how guilty I felt over the fact that I was stuck in the Phantom Zone for all those years? How guilty it made me feel that the only reason I wasn't there for Kal, to pass on the knowledge of our house, our planet, my home, was the fact that I didn't want to let go of you?" Kara asked, her voice rising with each word. "You left me all alone," Kara whispered, ducking her head.

"We know and we are so sorry, Kara," Zor-El began. "We were so desperate to get you off of Krypton before it exploded that we didn't think of what it would do to you."

"I'm sorry. I know you were only trying to do what was best for me and you didn't know that any of this would happen," Kara sniffled as she reached out to hug her parents again.

"It's alright, Kara. We understand."

* * *

In the next chapter, Kara makes a decision and we see the aftermath of her waking up. Also, someone may or may not get yeeted. Stay tuned and please leave a comment if you like it.

Come say hi (or yell at me) on Tumblr: theotherayatollahofrocknrolla


	3. Steel Awakens

"I used to think that I would never have a normal life, that I would never find love, that I would live my life alone. But I was wrong. I found love when I found Lena, when I learned that she loved me back. But, do you know what I love most about her? She lets me feel normal. She accepted Kara Danvers and Kara Zor-El as the same person. She doesn't put one over the other like some others do. She lets me be myself and it's one of the greatest gifts anyone's ever given me. She makes me feel _normal_. She gives me everything that I've ever wanted in my life. With her and with my friends, I found a new family. It began with the Danvers and then it grew as I made new friends. It might be little and occasionally broken, but it's still good. My friends and family gave me everything I never thought I would have. I _need_ to go back."

"Oh, my daughter," Alura said through her tears. "This is the decision I hoped you would make. It is far too early for you to join us in Rao's light. However, before you return, you need to accept the trauma that has happened to you. Your brain is shutting it out and you must acknowledge it before you return. We will do our best to help you through it and perhaps we can share some information on your foe, but first you need to _remember_."

Kara took a deep breath and tried to search the recesses of her mind. She replayed the fight with Reign, every punch, every hit, every moment, except for the last few. Kara remembered Reign holding her by the front of her suit, Reign letting go, reaching up desperately trying to stop her fall, then nothing. "I can't."

"Yes, you can. You must. Perhaps, it will help to meditate for a moment," Alura soothed as she motioned for Zor-El to come closer as she sat down on the floor with Kara.

* * *

Alex stirred in Maggie's arms a few hours after J'onn had left the room. She stood up and adjusted her twisted clothes and messy hair. As Alex stretched to try to loosen up her sore muscles, she caught sight of Maggie sprawled out on the couch and smiled. Alex felt her heart skip as she felt the happiness and joy permeate every one of her cells, ecstatic to finally have Maggie back in her life. As she looked around the room, she saw Eliza sleeping on the other couch in the room and Lena asleep in her chair, her head lying on top of Kara's unbroken hand. Alex quietly walked over and draped a blanket over Lena's shoulders as she heard the young CEO mumble something about a window. The older Danvers sister took a moment to look at her younger sister. She had never seen Kara look as small as she did now. The Super was clad in nothing but a hospital gown as tubes came out of her arms, her mouth, and her chest, bandages all over her body, along with bruises and the occasional cut. Alex was glad that someone had gotten the blood off of Kara's face, she and other doctors were so caught up in saving Kara's life that no one had thought to wash it off, such a task quickly fell to the bottom on the list of important tasks. No one had considered how hard it would be for Lena to see all the blood on Kara's face. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at her broken sister, praying that she would wake up soon, praying that she would survive all of this.

Alex sighed as she walked out of the room, not noticing that the level of solar energy in Kara's cells had gone up by several percentage points, currently sitting at 19% saturation. She walked into J'onn's office to find him watching ZNN on the TV in his office. "Agent Danvers, I think you should see this."

"What?"

"Just take a look at the footage that ZNN is showing." Alex turned toward the TV and was shocked at the sight of the size of the Supergirl memorial in front of CatCo. The news helicopter zoomed out and drifted a little bit higher to show the House of El symbol burned into the helipad at the top of the building.

" _The emblem burned into the helipad at CatCo's headquarters has been considered a symbol of hope for National City for years, particularly after the strange incident 3 years ago. After Press Secretary Cat Grant's statement, the people of this city have turned out in droves to lay flowers for the Girl of Steel as she, hopefully, continues recuperating. We at ZNN wish the Girl of Steel a speedy recovery and will continue covering the situation in National City as the mysterious villain that took down Supergirl continues to stay dormant and the city reels after the Christmas battle that raged through the city just last night. Merry Christmas."_

"Oh my god," Alex gasped. "Kara would be grateful to see something like this. After the Red K incident, she's always been worried that National City didn't trust her anymore, even more so after the Daxamite invasion."

"Yes, she would. Alex, perhaps you should join Director Lane in the command center and keep an eye on the situation together. I am aware that you prefer to dive into work in these types of situations, but please don't shut everyone out. Lucy is here for you if you want her to be, and Maggie is extremely happy to have you back. You have great people in your life, remember that."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and Agent Danvers, if you find yourself in your lab, as I imagine you will, please try not to blow anything up this time."

Lena stirred in her chair and for a moment was confused by her surroundings. Then suddenly, all the memories of the night before came flooding back and the reason why she was in a sterile looking, brightly light room became clear. _Kara._ Lena straightened her back and drew her shoulders back in an attempt to loosen her muscles. She looked up at her girlfriend, hoping to see some improvement in her condition, but found none. "Kara, please, you have to wake up, you have to come back to me." Kara gave no response, the only noise in the room was the hiss of the ventilator and the quiet breathing of the other sleeping figures in the room. Lena turned her head to see Eliza, Alex, Maggie still asleep on their respective couches. She smiled softly before getting up to stretch her legs a little. The young CEO walked over to the large window next to Kara's bed and sighed as she looked down at National City. The streets were bustling as the city once again tried to recover from the catastrophic fight that took place the night before. _Some way to celebrate Christmas._ J'onn entered the room with a cup of coffee that he wordlessly handed to Lena before walking out of the room, just as quickly as he came in.

* * *

Lena leaned against the window as she stared at Kara's unmoving form and felt grateful for the warmth of the sun coming through the window as she felt cold dread fill her chest and clench her heart. She had no clue how long she was standing there when she heard a commotion outside Kara's room. Somewhat annoyed, Lena pushed off the window and walked into the hallway to see what was going on. Finding the hallway empty, she kept walking until she found the source of the noise in the command center of the DEO. Mon-El, looking unusually irate, was yelling at Winn. "What is going on here?" Lena asked angrily.

"He's not letting me see Kara," Mon-El grumbled, pointing at Winn.

"Why would you want to see her? You have a wife, you've moved on with your life, what makes you think that you should be in there with Kara's _family_?"

"I'm her family! She loved me! What makes you part of her family?"

"No, she loved what you represented, a connection to Krypton. As for me, I'm her girlfriend. I deserve to be in there," Lena retorted, crossing her arms. "I'm not the one who attacked her as he saw her. I'm not the one who refuses to give her back her mother's necklace."

"She gave it me after she told me she loved me," Mon-El shot back, clutching the necklace.

"Well, of course, she said that. Kara's too nice to break up with someone when she's about to send them off the planet in a pod. I mean, come on," Lena paused before continuing. "Speaking of which, the necklace. Give it to me."

"No."

"Mon-El, dude, give it to her. That's not a good facial expression on Lena. That's her scary face."

"Winn, shush! Seriously, give it to me," Lena said, making a give-it-to-me gesture with her left hand.

"No. Kara gave it to me as a memento. I'm not doing it."

"Gentlemen… and Mon-El, allow me to present, Woman Not Caring," Lena pointed to her face as she set her face into an exasperated expression. "Give it. Don't make me do this the hard way." When Mon-El shook his head again indignantly, Lena sighed and cracked her fingers. "Welp, you chose the hard way. Don't say I didn't warn you." Lena took a step forward and quickly grabbed Mon-El by the ear and dragged him over to the balcony. Once she got to the edge, Lena let go of Mon-El's ear and shoved him over. "The things I do for love," Lena huffed as the entire DEO rushed to the balcony to look over the edge and watch as Mon-El fell to the street, screaming obscenities the entire way down. "Now, will you give it back?" Lena yelled over the edge.

"Yeah, okay," Mon-El groaned from the ground.

Lena smirked as someone in the crowd yelled, "Yeet!"

"And my work here is done," Lena said as she walked away, dusting off her hands.

"Nice," Alex complimented as Lena walked away.

"Thank you, Alex. All is a day's work for a Luthor," Lena answered as she grinned at Alex.

" _Lena? Lena?"_ Lena whirled around to find who was calling her name, but couldn't find the source.

* * *

Lena startled as she sat up in her stool and looked up to see Alex staring right at her. The younger woman's eyes searched the room as she realized that the events of the last few minutes were actually a dream. "What time is it?"

"It's about 10:30 am. Merry Christmas," Alex added sadly.

"Has anything changed? Is Kara awake?" Lena asked as she quickly turned her body to look at Kara, dismayed to see that nothing has changed. "Oh."

"No, nothing's changed," Alex said, the disappointment seeping into her voice as she picked up Kara's chart from its spot at the end of the sunbed. Alex mumbled to herself as she looked at the chart and looked up at the monitor before going a double take. "Wait-."

"What?" Lena asked hopefully.

"I think that the solar energy saturation of her cells went up a little. It's almost 20% now. It might be a fluke, but it's possible that her body is starting to respond."

"That's good, right?"

"Yea. I hope so, but what worries me is that nothing has started healing. None of her injuries have gotten any better. Nothing has changed. Part of me is really scared that this is a bad sign."

"How could this be a bad sign?"

"Well, when a person is getting close to death, a terminally ill person, or a gravely injured one, can experience something called 'the surge.' They get a burst of energy and seem to improve a little before they get significantly worse and eventually die." Lena sharply inhaled before releasing a shaky breath as she looked at Alex with tears welling up in her eyes. Lena turned to look at Kara's face as she brought her other hand up to wrap around Kara's and squeeze tightly.

"No," Lena said as she shook her head. "Kara _will_ be fine, Alex. You were convincing me that I need to have hope literally 6 hours ago. What happened?"

"I'm scared, Lena," Alex sighed out. "I don't want to give myself too much hope and for some reason that means I'm trying to convince myself that this may not be good news."

"It is, Alex. Kara loves you. She would never leave you if she had the choice and here, in this moment, she _has_ a choice and she's not leaving," Lena said with finality.

"You're right, Lena. I don't know what I've been thinking. You know she loves you too." Alex jumped as she felt arms wrap around her waist, but smiled when she saw that Maggie has behind her.

"She's right, Danvers. Kara _isn't_ leaving any of us."

"Exactly, sweetie," Eliza said as she walked into Alex's line of sight.

Lena smiled as she looked at Kara again. "I know and I hope she comes back soon so I can tell her how I feel, too."

Later that same evening, Lena wandered out of the sunroom and found herself standing in front of the collection of screens in the DEO's command center. She stood silently as she watched the footage of Christmas celebrations from all over the world interspersed with broadcasts of news anchors giving updates on all sorts of world events. Lena shifted her eyes over to the TV showing one of the many local news channels in National City as they aired footage of the various vigils and tributes to Supergirl that have popped up around the city since the morning. At the vigil in front of the Supergirl statue, Lena had helped put up, piles upon piles of flowers covered the entire base as citizens stood around it with candles in hand, singing Christmas carols once more. They even sang some of her favorites, inspired by an interview she had given to CatCo magazine the previous holiday season.

" _Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting tingle-ing, too… Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…"_

Lena sighed as she heard the opening lines to Kara's all-time favorite song. She had once told Lena about how it never snowed on Krypton and how during that first winter, the snow had scared her until Alex explained that it was a normal event on Earth. There were perks to being an alien who couldn't feel temperatures like humans, which meant that every winter as soon as it snowed Kara was always outside playing, enjoying the weather with the same kidlike wonder that she had when she came to Earth. Snow was a rare occurrence in National City given its mild climate, but whenever it did snow, Kara was outside enjoying it. Kara had planned to take Lena to Midvale for New Year's to enjoy the inevitable early January snowfall that always seemed to hit the beachside town.

Lena sighed as she felt the tears start to well up again. Lena trudged back to Kara's room and took her spot by Kara's bedside. Eliza and Alex were still in the lab working on something to try to speed up Kara's healing. The two women had explained what they were doing, but Lena had only half-listened as she stared at Kara's unmoving form. Maggie was unfortunately called away to deal with an emergency at the station because she was the detective on call for the Science Division this Christmas, having expected to spend it alone, still healing from her break up with Alex. But, by some miracle, Alex and Maggie were brought back together by the tragic events of this Christmas, Kara's injuries giving Maggie the push she needed to reconsider her previous decisions. _Kara would be so happy to find out that they were back together. She always thought Maggie was perfect for Alex._ Lena was extremely happy for the reunited couple as well, but her joy was overshadowed and crushed by her grief over her girlfriend's injuries.

Lena rested her face in her left hand, covering her eyes, as she blindly felt for Kara's hand with her right. "Kara, you have to wake up," Lena said forcefully. "We're all here for you. Alex and Eliza are in the lab trying to create some concoction to bring you back. Winn hasn't slept in two days. He's always in front of his computer trying to find that woman or he's in here with you. James has been in and out as he tries to keep the city from being overrun. Even Lucy came from the desert base. She's with J'onn now as they try to figure this all out. We're all here and you just need to _wake up._ Please, Kara. I don't know how I'm supposed to do all this without you. I feel like I can't breathe with you in that bed. _Please,_ " Lena sobbed out. She tightened her grip on Kara's hand. "Alex said your solar energy levels went up a little since your surgery. That's a good sign, I think. They haven't gone up since then though. What's going on, Kara? Is something keeping you from coming back? Please keep fighting, love. I need you to come back. So does Alex. I know she has Maggie back again, but she can't be happy in this life without you in it." Lena couldn't get any more coherent words out as her sobs became too strong. As hard as she tried, Lena couldn't contain her tears and she kept crying until she eventually cried herself to sleep. The last words on her lips before she passed out from her exhaustion were "Merry Christmas, Kara."

* * *

Rao's red rays continued to bounce off of the tall silver buildings in Argo City as they lit up Kara's bedroom. The last true scion of the House of El sat with her back to the window as she searched her mind for the hidden memories of her fight with Reign. Kara didn't know why she couldn't remember. Maybe, it was because a tiny part of her didn't want to leave her parents even though she knew that she had to return to her life on Earth. That admission what was allowed Kara to remember. Kara gasped as the memories came flooding back.

Kara remembered how she fell and fell and fell. She remembered how she didn't resist or try to slow her descent. She didn't react at all to her plunge from the top of the building. She just let herself fall. She remembered being too tired to do anything. Too weak to even try. Too beaten to resist her plunge. Too broken to give it a second thought or even a first thought. Too empty and drained. Too everything. So she fell and fell and fell. The fall was much longer than Kara had expected. It was almost as though time had slowed down. It gave her tired brain to think about all the good things in her life. About Lena and all the moments they had spent together as friends and then as something more. Kara had said that she wasn't afraid to die, to join her parents in Rao's light, but she had lied. She was so very afraid. Afraid of losing out on a life with Lena Luthor and of leaving Alex and the rest of her family, her patchwork family, so very much alone. And then suddenly, Kara was too tired to feel afraid anymore. Too tired to feel anything at all as her body crashed into the street and her world slowly started fading to black as she heard the commotion around her. Her last thought before she passed out was how Lena's hugs felt so much like home, a feeling she never thought she would have again. And then everything was black and then it was colored the red and silver of Argo City. Kara's eyes snapped open as she let out a shuddering breath. She looked up from her shaking hands to find herself looking into her mother's grey eyes.

" _I remember."_

* * *

Christmas came and went in National City, not that the occupants of the DEO's med bay would have known. As December 26th began, the mother-daughter team of Alex and Eliza continued to toil away in the lab, not making any progress in finding the cause of Kara's delayed healing and apparent inability to absorb solar radiation. James returned to his duties as the CEO of CatCo and the DEO agents were forced to divert some of their energy away from keeping a lookout for their villain's return. Unfortunately, without Supergirl to keep an eye out, National City began experiencing a mild spike in criminal activity. It wasn't enough to worry anyone yet, but J'onn decided that it would be best to make it known that a Super was still protecting the city, so he called in Superman to occasionally patrol the city. Although reluctant to take his cousin's place, he agreed to begin to make appearances in National City and take over some of Kara's crime prevention duties. He stopped by the DEO to apologize for not being there sooner, having been in the Fortress trying to find information that would help Kara, but ultimately came up empty handed as he had no idea what to look for.

Maggie was also spending the day at the DEO, much like how she used to as the official liaison to the agency. Unable to take time off on such short notice, she used the not entirely dishonest guise of helping the DEO in their hunt. However, she spent most of her time trying to make sure the two Danvers and Lena were actually taking care of themselves. She forced Alex out of the lab to take a shower and get some sleep as she brought Eliza some food, before switching and herding Eliza out of the lab much the same way. Despite her best efforts, Maggie was unable to get Lena to leave Kara's side for anything long than the occasional bathroom break, so she went over to the brunette's apartment to bring her some clothes. When she got to Lena's penthouse, Maggie was shocked to find that Lena had amassed a small collection of t-shirts and other comfortable clothes in her dresser drawers. Figuring they were Kara's, Maggie packed several of them into a duffle bag before returning to the DEO. When she returned in the early afternoon, Lena was engaged in a heated phone call with Jess and it seemed that the CEO was going to take someone's head off if the problem wasn't resolved soon. She cursed as she ended the call and brought up a hand to rub her forehead as the other nervously twirled her phone. Lena blushed slightly when she looked up to find Maggie watching her. "Is everything okay?" Maggie asked as she deposited the bag on the floor next to one of the couches.

"No. Sam didn't come to work today. No phone call, nothing. It's like she suddenly dropped off of the face of the Earth, which means that there's no one to run LCorp."

"Do you need to go in?"

"Yes, but I really don't want to. I can't bring myself to leave Kara's side and I haven't showered or anything in days. I'm still wearing the clothes from the outing with James a few days ago," Lena rambled.

"Okay, so here's what we're gonna do," Maggie said as she took Lena by the shoulders. "I happened to grab a more businessy type outfit for you while I was at your apartment earlier, so you're going to go grab that bag, take a shower, change, and I will take you to LCorp."

"Maggie, you don't have to—"

"Ah!," Maggie exclaimed, shushing Lena. "Nope, I am taking you there and that's the end of it. Lena, I know how you feel, trust me. _But_ you can't let LCorp go down in flames either. Alex will call one of us as soon as something changes, you know that." Lena nodded silently before being guided to the locker room to start getting ready.

"Where's Lena going?" Alex asked as she walked down the hall.

"LCorp. Jess called her freaking out about the fact that Sam isn't at work and no one can seem to be able to get in touch with her."

"Huh. That is pretty weird. I'll send someone to check up on her."

"Yea, I think that's a good idea. Actually, you know what, I'm gonna go drop Lena off at the office and I can go to Sam's after?"

"That's a great idea, babe," Alex said, not noticing her use of the pet name.

"Babe?"

"What?"

"Alex, you just called me 'babe.'"

"Oh," Alex stuttered. "Are you not okay with that? Is it too early? Oh god, it's too early," Alex said panicking.

"Deep breath, Danvers," Maggie said as she made Alex take a calming breath with her. "It's not too early at all. I actually kinda missed you calling me that. It's nice."

"Oh… Good. I'm glad," Alex smiled. Maggie stepped forward and kissed Alex as they embraced each other. Their moment was interrupted by a sheepish-looking Lena Luthor knocking on the glass a few minutes later.

"That was fast," Maggie mumbled causing Alex to burst out laughing.

"Sorry for interrupting."

"It's okay, Lena," Alex and Maggie said simultaneously. "Let's get going, Little Luthor."

"Maggie," Lena grumbled under her breath. When Maggie and Lena left the med bay, Alex turned to Kara's motionless form and sighed. Checking over Kara's vitals, Alex noted that Kara's solar saturation levels had reached 30%, but her physical condition remained unchanged. The bruises on her face had started to change from a vicious red to a deep purple color as they slightly shrank in size. The blonde hero was still unable to breathe on her own because there was absolutely no resistance to the ventilator and there was no evidence that Kara was starting to breathe over the machine. The chest tube was still collecting blood that would otherwise be gathering in Kara's chest. Despite the apparent improvement, Kara still wasn't getting any better and Alex was at a loss. Alex sat down in the stool that Lena had been occupying and reached for Kara's unbroken hand as she quietly wept, unwilling to have anyone in the DEO to know that she actually _can_ cry.

"Oh, honey," Eliza said quietly as she walked in on Alex crying by Kara's bedside. She wrapped her arms around Alex as the younger Danvers continued to cry.

"Mom," Alex said wetly. "What if she never wakes up? Nothing we do seems to be working. What are we going to do?"

"Alex, you know Kara, she does things when she's good and ready. She won't leave any of us. Just give it time. We need to be patient. The hardest part is already over, so now we just need to wait."

 _Two hours later…_

Alex startled as her phone rang. "Hello?"

" _Alex, it's me. I'm at Sam's house right now. There's no one here_ , _"_ Maggie's voice said through the phone.

"Wait?" Alex yelled.

" _I made some calls. Ruby's at school. Apparently, Sam dropped her off at a friend's house last night, citing some kind of family emergency. She claimed that she had a crisis to deal with, but didn't give any more details. Ruby mentioned that Sam has been acting weird lately, forgetting large chunks of time and some other general weirdness after some sort of trip to her mother's house."_

"When was this trip?"

" _Last week."_

"Huh."

" _I just had a crazy thought. So, you know how Ruby was convinced that same was some sort of hero?"_

"Yeah, how could I forget?"

" _I've been thinking… Sam start acting strange right before this woman in black shows up. Morgan Edge gets attacked after an attack on Lena that she's only mentioned to me… and to Sam. Shit. Alex! What if that woman_ is _Sam?"_

"Maggie, that's a stretch. This could all be a coincidence! Sam is human."

" _Are you sure? Alex, a wise man once told me that 'there's no such thing as coincidence.' Listen, it all adds up; we can't just ignore this. You don't think that someone would go through all this trouble to set this all up. We need to consider this as a real possibility."_

"You don't think that this is all awfully convenient?"

" _A little, but Alex… Listen, I know when to trust my gut and my gut is screaming at me."_

"Okay, Maggie. I'll think about it and I'll have J'onn go out to visit her mother, but I'm not too sure."

" _Thank you, Alex. I have to go now. Talk to you later."_

"Bye, Maggie. I love you."

" _I love you too."_ As soon as Alex finished her call with Maggie, she went to fill J'onn in on Maggie's theory about Sam. J'onn agreed that they couldn't ignore the evidence, so he had Winn track down Mrs. Arias. Address in hand, J'onn took a DEO issued black SUV and went to speak to the older woman, hoping to get some answers.

Lena came back from LCorp later that same evening armed with a pile of paperwork that needed to be completed. "For some reason, the whole 'my girlfriend is might very well be on her deathbed because she got caught in the crossfire between Supergirl and a villain' is not a good enough excuse for the board to leave me alone for five minutes," Lena complained. Alex eyed Lena as she ranted. "Relax, Alex. No one knows Kara's secret."

"That's not why I'm looking at you like that, Lena. I'm just finally seeing what Kara means when she said you can be a little extra."

Lena snorted and replied, "Sometimes, one has to be a little extra when dealing with crusty old billionaires who refuse to acknowledge the fact that I'm not a robot."

"You're not wrong there," Alex laughed.

* * *

"Oh Rao. I can't believe that happened."

"I know, Kara and I am so sorry," Alura soothed.

"Does this mean I can go back now?"

"Not yet. Your mind is ready to return, but that does not mean that your body is open to waking up just yet. You still have to heal. The fight with the Worldkiller was extremely traumatic and your body is still severely injured. Even when it heals, it will still take some time before you can return fully. There is a risk that you will be rather confused when you wake up, you may not be entirely aware of where you are right away. You need to be prepared to face that."

"Will I remember any of this?"

"You will remember some parts. You will remember that you were in a peaceful place and that you learned something. The information your father and I will tell you will stay in the back of mind, almost as though it were on the tip of your tongue until the memory is triggered and then everything will return to you."

* * *

The next few days came and went almost unnoticed by the occupants of the med bay. December 26th ended with Lena passing out with a pile of papers in front of her and a tablet on her lap. Alex and Maggie once again slept on the couch as did Eliza. December 27th was equally uneventful. Lena was able to get the board off of her back by demanding that she be allowed to keep vigil at her girlfriend's bedside in peace, lest they want to feel the wrath of a Luthor. The threat was remarkably effective as was the stream of extraordinarily imaginative curse words that Lena interspersed her sentences with. She decided to give her trusted assistant the power to make business decisions without consulting Lena first, knowing that Jess was just as dedicated to LCorp as she was. James called daily to gave Lena updates on the happenings at CatCo.

December 28th was, unfortunately, a rather active day at DEO. The morning started with Maggie getting called to a crime scene with Alex. The victim was a murdered Starhavenite in what was an open and shut case of a hate crime. Lena was called to LCorp once again when a foreign investor was being particularly argumentative and refused to listen to anyone when they told him that Lena was unavailable. When she got to the office, she found herself stuck in a two-hour long video conference as she tried to reason with the man. Lena was barely able to keep him from withdrawing and backing Morgan Edge. Just as she was about to leave, she was sucked into another meeting with her R&D department. J'onn had returned from a very unproductive trip to Sam's mother's house, but his telepathy did pick up on some thoughts about how Sam was not from Earth. However, he was unable to find any evidence as to what planet she was from, so the team was back to square one. Toward the evening as the entire group found themselves back at the DEO, Maggie and Alex got word of another attack by Reign near the harbor, meaning that Alex and Maggie deployed to lead a strike team, along with Lucy and Vasquez as J'onn directed things from the DEO headquarters. The attack left Lena and Eliza alone with Kara in the sunroom. The two women passed the time by chatting, first about some of the new research that LCorp was doing and then about hilarious incidents with Kara, including the infamous popcorn incident 15 years ago. Eliza and Lena had gotten into a rather easy conversation when suddenly, everything went wrong.

Kara's heart monitor began beeping out of control before the sound of a flatline filled the room. Eliza ran to the wall to get a crash cart as Lena dashed to try to find Dr. Hamilton. By the time Lena returned with Dr. Hamilton in tow, Eliza was already shocking Kara. It was a horrifying scene as Eliza stood over Kara's body, shouting out orders as she sent electric shocks through her body. "Charge to 300! Clear," Eliza shouted as Kara's back arched off the bed and flopped back down. "Charging to 350! Clear," she yelled as Kara's back arched again and slumped back into the bed like a ragdoll. "400!" Eliza roared. "Damnit, Kara! You get your Kryptonian butt back here or so help me! Again!" Eliza shocked Kara again and almost cried when she saw that Kara's heart was beating again. Lena did.

* * *

"Can you tell me about Reign? She clearly has some sort of mission, but I don't know anything about her."

"Reign was one of several Worldkillers that the Science Council created to protect Krypton, but we realized that they were impossible to control and astoundingly bloodthirsty. I was ordered to destroy them once the Science Council had outlawed their use, but one of them was stolen by an agent of the Cult of Rao," Zor-El explained.

"Worldkillers? Cult of Rao?"

"Worldkillers were weapons of mass destruction that were supposed to protect Krypton if we were invaded. Much like what Medusa was supposed to do."

"Medusa?! Do you have any idea what your virus nearly did to my friends?"

"Yes, and believe me when I say that I regret many of my choices in life. As I was saying, the Cult of Rao was a fundamentalist faction of the Mediator Guild that kept many of the ancient, forgotten traditions alive. Reign's purpose was to serve justice and exact vengeance. But, I have no idea what the Cult programmed her to do."

"She said that she was dispensing justice on Earth and punishing me for the hubris of my ancestors. Is there a way to defeat her?"

"There is. Since Reign adopted a human persona for most of her life, there are two sides to her. If you can separate the two, the Reign part of her will be weakened enough that she can be defeated."

"How?"

"There are stories of a black rock found on our planet that were scorched by Rao and could have profound effects under the right conditions, under a yellow sun. That rock should work on Earth. Then you can use the standard weaknesses of a Kryptonian to defeat her."

"Kal once told me of a superheated piece of Kryptonite—that's what we call pieces of Krypton that fell to Earth—can become Black Kryptonite. Someone once used it on him and separated him into a good and evil side. That might work. After that… we can use what Alex used to stop me when I was affected by Red K. A red sun blast and a Kryptonite bullet should be able to stop her." Kara paused and looked at her father. "But what about her other side, will she survive?"

"Yes, she should. Do you know who she is on Earth?"

"No… oh Rao. She said that we both have a connection to Lena- it's Sam! It all makes sense now. But she's my friend…"

"I am sorry, my daughter," Alura said as she hugged Kara.

"I don't know if I can do this."

"You must, Kara. Or else Reign will never stop." Kara nodded.

* * *

After the crisis on December 28th, Eliza, Alex, Maggie, and Lena decided that they wouldn't be leaving Kara's side again, even if there was an apocalypse (again). They couldn't let her slip away again. By December 29th, Kara's solar energy levels reached 50% as Kara began to suddenly improve, much to everyone's shock and relief. Alex was able to remove the chest tube and Kara began breathing over the ventilator, so Eliza started to carefully wean her off. Lena watched the doctors bustle around Kara as she quietly thanked Kara for not leaving her and gently stroked her blonde hair. On December 30th, they were able to remove the breathing tube as Kara was able to fully breathe on her own and her saturation levels reached 75% by the end of the day. However, there was still no evidence of her powers returning. On December 31st, J'onn wheeled a TV into the room so they could watch the evening's festivities. By the early afternoon, Kara's injuries had completely healed as though nothing had happened, the only evidence of something being wrong was the fact that Kara was still unconscious and unresponsive. Her solar saturation levels reached 95% and seemed to plateau there. Everyone gathered in Kara's room to watch the countdown as the ball dropped, ringing in the New Year. When midnight came, Alex kissed Maggie, Eliza and J'onn hugged, James and Lucy shared a chaste kiss, and Winn and Vasquez hugged as Lena leaned over to kiss Kara. When she pulled back, Lena found herself staring into the piercing blue eyes that she thought she would never see again. The young CEO gasped as tears began to slide down her cheeks. Lena shoved the sun lamps out of the way and hugged Kara. Alex was about to protest when she saw that Kara's eyes were open. "Oh my god! Guys, she's awake," Alex announced. "Kara? Can you hear me?" Kara looked at Alex blankly.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

( _That's not good._ )

* * *

If you think you spotted the 5 references I made in this chapter, message me and if you're right, you can ask any question about this fic and I'll do my best to answer.

Otherwise, enjoy and let me know what you think...

In the next chapter, Kara tries to remember before the battle against Reign and things get wrapped up into a neat little bow.


	4. When Steel Reigns, Evil Falls

The references I mentioned in the last chapter were (in order):  
Lilo and Stitch  
Game of Thrones  
Scrubs  
Grey's Anatomy  
NCIS

Information about why the old version was removed and rewritten will be included at the end of this chapter. But hey, there's more SuperCorp fun in here now, so... Anyway, on with the show.

* * *

" _Oh my god! Guys, she's awake," Alex announced. "Kara? Can you hear me?" Kara looked at Alex blankly._

" _Who are you? Where am I?"_

* * *

The New Year's revelry came to a screeching halt as Alex stared at Kara, wordlessly opening and closing her mouth much like a fish as she struggled to find something to say. Alex's head snapped up as she stared at an equally shocked Maggie, who turned to look at Lena, who was simply gaping at Kara. James looked at Lucy as she looked at Winn and J'onn, who was staring at Eliza. Eliza looked at her daughters and Vasquez looked at Winn as the entire room had no idea what to do. Maggie was the first to come to her senses and said, "Um… Could we please have the room, guys?" As everyone nodded and quickly exited the room, she added a quick "Thanks." Within seconds, the only people in the room were the 3 Danvers women, Lena, and Maggie. Alex quickly turned off and moved the sunlamps as she helped Kara prop herself up in her bed.

Alex grabbed Kara's chart and flipped to a blank page before grabbing a pen. She pulled up Lena's stool and sat down. "Kara, if you're up to it, I want to ask you a few questions." When Kara nodded, Alex continued, "Do you know who _you_ are?"

"Yes. My name is Kara Zor-El, daughter of the Great House of El."

"Right. Do you know where you are?"

"Planet Earth. But I don't feel any of the special powers that my mother said your yellow sun would give me."

Alex hummed as she tapped the pen against her chin. "Can you be more specific as to where you are? Do you know when you are? Do you know what year it is?"

"I'm in National City, correct?" Alex nodded. "It's 2017."

"Actually, as of—" Alex trailed off as she checked her watch, "15 minutes ago, it's 2018, but that's okay. Do you know who any of us are?"

"No, I don't. I feel as though I should know you, but I don't. That woman over there," Kara says as she points to Lena, "seems so familiar and makes me want to smile, like she's my best friend." Kara gestured toward Maggie and said, "She makes me a little sad, but I'm also really happy to see her. And you, I want to hug you, but I don't know why. That blonde woman over there—I want to hug her too." Kara paused before continuing. "Can you tell me what happened to me?"

"Uh… sure. Before I tell you that, do you know that you have… um…" Alex stuttered.

"Powers! Kara, do you know you have powers?" Maggie supplied exasperated.

"Yea, that."

"Yes, my mother told me I would have them when I came to Earth."

"You were in a fight with another alien—we don't know her name yet—and she did a real number on you. When we—when I—brought you here after the fight, you were barely breathing and you died. It was just for a moment but—" Alex paused as the tears started to fall. "I'm sorry," she said as she turned to Maggie, who wrapped her arms around the shaking brunette.

"Oh," Kara said, sobering rather quickly. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. We're clearly very close. Who are we to each other? By your reaction earlier, you're obviously not just my doctor."

"I'm your sister and you're right, we are very close. We weren't at first but over the years we've gotten pretty close."

Three variations of "Yeah, you guys have." came out of Lena, Maggie, and Eliza's mouths.

"Oh," Kara said as she tilted her head slightly. "I'm sorry that I don't remember you. Maybe you can tell me about our relationship sometime?"

"Sure, I would love to, but hopefully, you'll remember things on your own." Kara narrowed her eyes as she stared at Alex. Various emotions flickered across her face as memories fleeted through her brain. She was flooded with images of a house on the beach, surfboards, and of catching a body falling from a balcony. Kara blinked and shook her head a little. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Okay," Alex said, unconvinced.

"I'm just having a little bit of a hard time with all this. I know who I am and where I am. I even know when I am, but I don't know anything about what has happened in between. I've been on Earth for 15 years and I can't remember a single thing. Just flashes."

Lena smiled slightly and put her hand on Kara's shoulder. "It's okay, Kara. We're all going to be here for you and help you as much we can."

"Hey! Maybe some pictures could help?" Maggie exclaimed. Alex and Lena looked at Maggie quizzically for a moment before nodding and reaching into their pockets to pull out their phones.

Alex is the first to produce a picture on her phone. On her screen were two teenagers, one blonde and cheerful, the other dark-haired and surly, with two adults behind them. "This was the first thing we did as a family after you came to Earth. You'd been with us for about 4 months and you had finally gotten control of your senses, so we went to the carnival because you just wanted to go so badly," Alex said nostalgically.

"Jeremiah insisted on us doing all the standard carnival things: rides, games, food, the works. I think that might have been the start of your junk food addiction," Eliza added with a laugh. Kara smiled at the memory even though she couldn't remember any of it. Alex nodded at Lena who pulled out her own phone to show Kara a more recent picture.

"This is us at a press conference that a friend of mine held," Lena said as she pointed to the screen, which showed Lena, Kara, and Jack beaming at the camera, face slightly squished as they tried to fit into the frame. She swiped to show another picture, this one of just Kara and Lena, both equally happy with conference passes dangling from their necks.

"Why was I at a press conference? I'm not a journalist or anything, am I?" Kara asked as more vague flashes passed through her mind. This time of a bald, faceless man yelling at her about something and of some sort of silver shape trapping her.

"Press conferences are sort of our thing at this point."

"Yeah. Every time you host one, someone tries to kill you and Kara ends up saving you," Alex interjects with a laugh. Kara stared at Alex blankly for a moment as she searched her mind for a memory and only got a brief recollection of a beautiful brunette telling her that she would make a great reporter.

"I _am_ a journalist," Kara whispered.

"Kara, did you just remember something?"

"I think. I remember someone telling me that I should consider being a reporter… I think it was you," Kara said as she turned to Lena.

"It was. You came to my office with your cousin to interview me about an explosion on a space shuttle that I was supposed to be on."

"Oh. Was he nice to you? I know how he feels about Luthors—no offense."

"He was civil at first. He was actually rather polite when you came to give me a copy of his article."

"That's good. You deserve people being nice to you."

"Thank you, Kara," Lena replied with an almost sad smile. "Would you like to see another picture?" Kara nodded and Lena swiped to show Kara another photo. "This is from one of our girls' nights. This was about a month before—" Lena stopped speaking as she quickly looked up at Alex, who just shook her head. This was all unnoticed by Kara who was staring intently at one of the people in the photograph. "Kara?" Lena asked as she noticed Kara staring.

"Who is that woman there?" Kara asked, pointing at Sam. Lena zoomed in on Sam's face before answering.

"That's my friend Sam. She's been helping me run LCorp during the last few months." As Kara kept looking at the picture, suddenly the image of hazel eyes behind a black mask flashed through her mind. Images of purple lips speaking as hands held Kara aloft before sneering. Flashes of cold greenish eyes staring at her, filled with hate, as a hand released its grip, sending Kara plunging toward the ground. Kara lurched back as she snapped back to reality. "Kara! What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I remembered something. I remembered falling," Kara said as she stared at her lap. "What happened to me?" Kara asked as she looked up at Alex. "The whole story this time, please. I know that you're keeping something from me."

Alex and Eliza exchanged a look before Alex sat down on the bed next to Kara. "When you were in that fight, the alien, she was much stronger than you. She was tossing you around the street like a punching bag. She eventually hit you in the chest with her heat vision, which sent you filling onto the roof of a skyscraper. I don't know what happened up there, but she dropped you off the building and you landed on the sidewalk right in front of us. When we got you back to the DEO, you were barely alive with so many injuries that you would have been dead if you were human. We managed to save you, but you've been in a coma since Christmas." Kara silently gawked at Alex as she took in the information she just learned.

"I think that maybe we should leave you guys alone for a bit. That's a lot to take in."

"She's right, Kara," Lena said lovingly, sensing her girlfriend's distress. "You know what, I think we should pick this up tomorrow. Maybe let Kara get some rest?"

"That's a good idea, Lena. We'll be back in the morning. Good night." Alex put Kara's chart back in its place as Eliza and Maggie left the room. She joined them after bidding Kara and Lena good night again. As they walked out of the room toward the DEO locker room to get some rest, Maggie wrapped an arm around Alex's waist. Eliza smiled as she saw Alex's posture slowly relax as she melted into Maggie's side.

Lena sat back down next to Kara and smiled at the blonde. "Can I ask you a question?" Kara asked nervously.

"Of course, Kara."

"What are we to each other? You look at me like it hurts and I want to know why. I don't want to be the source of your pain, Lena."

Lena took a deep breath before looking into Kara's blue eyes. "You're my girlfriend. We started dating after you saved my life for the twentieth time. You told me your secret, which I had already figured out and then you told me your other secret—that you loved me."

"Are we happy?" Kara asked quietly.

"Very," Lena replied as she gently put a hand on Kara's cheek and softly rubbed her thumb over Kara's cheekbone. Kara smiled as she brought her own hand up to cover Lena's.

"That's good. You deserve to be happy."

"You don't even remember me, Kara. How would you know?"

"I just do, Lena. Another thing I know right now is that I really want to kiss you."

"That I can help you with," Lena said as she leaned and kissed Kara with a smile.

"Now, I imagine you've been here with me since they brought me here," Kara paused as she waited for Lena's confirmation. "Please go and get some sleep or something. You need to take care of yourself. I'm not going to be doing anything but sleep right now anyway." Lena tried to object but Kara gave her a stern look and Lena reluctantly obliged.

* * *

 _A few hours later…_

Eliza, Maggie, and Alex were sitting at a table in DEO breakroom enjoying the companionable silence as they drank coffee since they were still too wired to sleep. The television quietly played in the background, showing clips of various New Year celebrations from all around the world. The three women were soon joined by Lena at the table as she too grabbed a cup of coffee. Alex raised her eyebrow as she saw Lena drink her unusually light and sweet coffee. "Your sister got to me, okay?" Lena said in a mockingly defensive tone. Eliza snorted as she tilted her mug to cover her growing smile as Maggie sniggered at the matter of fact statement.

"She seems to do that to everyone. Did Kara kick you out of the room or something?"

"Maybe," Lena said noncommittally. Alex quirked her eyebrow at Lena again. "Okay! Yes. She gave me some speech about how I should take of myself better and refused to go to sleep until I left the room."

"She's not wrong. And listen, I'm just happy that I don't have to watch your guys' eye fucking anymore." With that, Maggie lost it and burst into full-fledged laughter.

"It's not _eye fucking_ , Alex," Lena grumbled into her mug.

"Fine, eye lovemaking. Whatever," Alex replied as she rolled her eyes and took another gulp of coffee. "By the way, I have a quick question."

"Yes?"

"A few days ago, you were dreaming and mentioned something about windows and balconies before laughing kinda maniacally. What was up with that?"

"I have _no_ idea what _you're_ talking about, Alex."

"Bullshit. Spill."

"Alright, fine," Lena huffed. "I did _a thing_."

"A thing?"

"Best not talk about the thing."

"Lena, we're talking about the thing."

Lena sighed and sat back in her chair. "I may or may not have tossed Mon-El off the balcony in my dream."

"You _may or may not have_?" Alex asked as she tried to keep a straight face.

"Oh my god," Maggie and Eliza mumbled into their mugs.

"Okay. Fine. I did!" Lena said, throwing her hands up in the air. "It was kinda awesome," she added as she leaned toward Alex.

"Oh, I bet it was," Alex said laughing. As the laughter died down, Alex frowned as she stared at her coffee.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Nothing, Mom. I was just thinking. What are we going to do? Kara can't remember anything and we still don't know what to do about Reign, who has been mysteriously quiet for the past week. Inexplicably quiet villains are _never_ a good thing."

"Maybe we should make a plan for taking down Reign without Kara and if she remembers something, we can change that plan," Maggie suggested.

"That's a good idea. We should get Lucy and J'onn in on this, too. They're pretty good at the whole strategy thing," Alex said.

"The whole strategy thing? Wow, nice secret agent lingo there, Alex," Maggie teased.

"Shut up, Maggie. It's like 5 am," Alex griped.

"Alright, children. I think we all need a nap," Eliza said rising from the table. As Alex opened her mouth to protest, Eliza held up her hand to stop any objections from anyone at the table. "Now." As Lena, Alex, and Maggie skulked out of the room to go get some sleep, Eliza quickly cleaned up after them and went to the command center to catch up with some of her "children" as they monitored the mostly quiet city.

Kara woke up as soon as the sun's rays filtered through the window and began to illuminate the room. She squinted as she looked around the empty room and tried to remember where she was. _The DEO… That's where the doctor said I was_. She gingerly got off the bed, a faint voice in the back of her memories reminding her to be careful with her strength. She wandered out of the room as she felt the inexplicable need to keep walking down the hall until she found herself in front of a blank wall with a panel next to it. "It'll only respond to your handprint—well yours and Alex's," Eliza explained. Kara startled and whipped around to find the source of the voice. "I had a feeling you would come here. You always did when you had a bad day or just needed some guidance."

"What's inside?" Kara asked as she scrunched her face in confusion.

"Your mother," Eliza said plainly. "It's the AI of herself that she sent along with your pod when you left Krypton." Kara nodded as she held her hand up to the panel and the wall slid open, revealing an illuminated silver platform.

"Thank you," Kara said to Eliza before disappearing inside.

* * *

 _January 1, 2019; 9 am_

Alex was the first to wake up from her enforced nap and silently padded out of the DEO bunks, not wanting to wake up Maggie or Lena. She went straight to the med bay, where she found… no one. Confused and rather alarmed, Alex ran to the command center to look at the surveillance cameras. When she got there, Alex found Eliza instead, chatting with Winn and Lucy. "Mom, where's Kara?" Alex asked once she got within earshot of Eliza.

"She's talking to her mother."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure. Kara didn't say anything."

"It looks like she's meditating," Winn chimed in as he pointed to one of the screens in front of him.

"I think she's trying to remember," Alex said. "Hey, Lucy, do you think I can borrow you for a bit so we can talk to J'onn?"

"Sure, lead the way, Danvers," Lucy said as she threw her arms out dramatically.

"Hey, Danvers is _my_ line," Maggie joked as she walked into the command center with Lena in tow.

"I was here first, so it's mine," Lucy replied. The two women scowled at each other as Lena, Winn, and Eliza tried not to laugh.

"Okay, enough. Both of you can use it. Now can we go please?" Alex interrupted.

"Fine," Lucy whined as she followed Alex.

* * *

 _In the Alura AI room…_

"My daughter, you hold the key to defeating Reign in your memories, but first you must remember."

"Yes, Mom, I am aware of that, but I don't know how. I've tried meditating and I just—I just don't know. How am I supposed to help Alex and the rest of the DEO? How are we going to stop a _Worldkiller_?" Alura simply looked at Kara as she watched her daughter panic, unaware of the fact that her memories have returned.

"Kara. Kara!"

"What?" Alura raised her right eyebrow as she looked at Kara. "Oh. OH. Wait! My memories! They're back!"

"Indeed, they are. You just needed to gave yourself a moment to relax and stop trying to force them."

"Thank you, Mom."

"Of course, Kara." After bidding goodbye to the AI of her mother, Kara left the room and went in search of Alex. Following the sound of her sister's heartbeat, Kara found Alex in J'onn's office along with him and Lucy. She knocked on the door, knowing how much J'onn hates it when people burst in on his meetings. As soon as she heard J'onn's voice give her permission to enter, Kara walked and leaned against the wall across from his desk.

"Yes, Ms. Danvers?"

"Mr.—um…" Kara trailed off as she looked at the nameplate on the desk. "Director Henshaw, I have some questions about my role here at the DEO," Kara said, as she pretended not to remember yet. "My doctor told me that I have powers and I was just wondering what I do here."

"Well, you assist us with various missions where sending in human agents would be too dangerous or otherwise inadvisable."

"Do I have a costume? Or a cape?" J'onn looked at Kara incredulously as he raised his eyebrows. "Because you know, the whole all black outfit thing is more Reign's thing than mine."

"Yes, well—wait," J'onn said as he realized what Kara had just said.

"Yes, Kara, you have a suit. It was being repaired after your last fight," Alex explained, not noticing what Kara had just revealed.

"So, what are you guys talking about?" Kara asked cheerily.

"Just trying to figure out a plan," Lucy answered.

"To kill Reign?"

"Um… yes actually," Lucy answered.

"Good thing, I have a couple of ideas then."

"Kara, you don't even know what we're up against."

"Actually, Alex, I know exactly what we're up against." Alex narrowed her eyes at Kara as her mind processed the last few things that Kara had said.

"You remember?" When Kara nodded, Alex launched herself at Kara and gave her a tight hug. "It's so good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, Alex. Listen for this plan to work, we're gonna need everyone. Reign is not going to be easy to beat. So, get everyone into a conference room and I'm going to tell you everything."

* * *

 _January 1, 2019; 10 am_

The DEO conference room slowly filled up as people joined in on the meeting Kara called. Alex, J'onn, and Lucy were joined at the conference table by Eliza, Maggie, Lena, Winn, and Vasquez. Around the edges of the room, members of Alex's and Vasquez's strike teams stood with notepads, ready to write down any vital information they might need. "First things first, the most important thing you need to know about Reign is that she _is_ Kryptonian, but she was genetically modified by the Science Guild before it was decided that all the Worldkillers needed to be destroyed because they were getting too dangerous."

"For a planet that was destroyed with only two survivors, there sure are lots of Kryptonians showing up showing up these days," Lucy commented.

"But wait, you said they were all destroyed," Maggie pointed out.

Kara shrugged and made a noncommittal noise before continuing, "Unfortunately, a fundamentalist sect of the Mediator Guild took her. The Cult of Rao was completely insane—for lack of a better term—by any standard. They kept some of Krypton's oldest, forgotten traditions alive from a time before the Great Houses were established and Krypton became the society I knew. Reign's purpose was to dispense justice, but it seems that they brainwashed her to include the desire to exact vengeance on me for my ancestors' hubris."

"Are you saying that this cult knew about what was happening on Krypton?" Eliza asked.

"Yes. Many people in the highest positions of the Guilds and the Great Houses knew what was coming, but chose to ignore it."

"How do you know all this about Reign and her history?" Vasquez asked.

"Because my father created them," Kara answered grimly.

"Your father?" Vasquez asked, her confusion obvious in her tone.

"Yes. He was responsible for creating some of Krypton's most powerful and destructive bioweapons."

"Like the Medusa virus," Lena said quietly.

"Yes, like the Medusa virus. Since he was responsible for creating them, he also told me how to defeat Reign. He explained that since Reign had adopted a human persona on Earth, the human and Kryptonian sides of her are essentially separate entities. It's like having multiple personalities."

"So, they can be separated?" Lena asked.

"Yes. We need Black Kryptonite to do it. After she's been separated, Reign will be significantly weaker, so a concentrated blast of red sun energy and a Kryptonite bullet should kill her."

"But, what about the human part of her? What about Sam?" Lena inquired.

"Sam should be fine. I don't know if she'll retain any powers though."

"Your cousin did," Lucy mentioned. "We have Black Kryptonite at the desert base. Me and J'onn can go get it."

"Definitely, but first we should figure out how to get Reign to come to us."

"We can set up a fake hostage crisis," Alex suggested. "We could hold up a bank or something. That would get Reign's attention."

"You could use the First National City Bank. It's owned by LCorp, so I can make sure everything is taken care of and it's closed today," Lena proposed.

"Can we get this planned and done in a few hours?" Alex asked J'onn and Lucy.

"I believe so," J'onn said as Lucy nodded. After another hour of discussing the details of the plan to take down Reign, the meeting broke up as J'onn and Lucy left to retrieve the Black Kryptonite, Lena and Maggie went to the bank to scope it out and secure the building, Eliza gave Kara a quick medical checkup to make sure that she was ready to fight, and Winn worked on tweaking Kara's anti-Kryptonite armor.

* * *

 _January 1, 2019; 8 pm_

Kara and Alex stood in front of the First National City Bank as the DEO covertly set up inside the bank. Kara stared off into the distance as Alex stood silently. "Kara, you okay?" Alex asked quietly.

"Yea, I'm fine. It's just a lot, you know? The last time I fought Reign, I almost died and I don't know… I'm basically expecting the Nain Rouge to show up and tell me that this a big mistake," Kara said solemnly.

"Kara what did I tell you about watching shows without me?"

"Sorry."

 _"Alex, what's the situation on your end?"_ Winn asked through the comms.

"Well, frankly Winn, the situation is balls. We're about to be sitting ducks waiting for an attack by the most powerful villain we've ever seen."

 _"Right,"_ Winn said hastily. _"We're all ready here, so now it's up to you."_

 _"Good luck, guys. And Kara, you better come back conscious this time, got it?"_ Lena chimed in.

"Thank you, Lena," Alex replied.

"I promise, Lena. I love you," Kara said.

 _"I love you, too."_

* * *

 _January 1, 2019; 8:30 pm_

The bank was eerily quiet as Lucy and Alex hid on the balcony with sniper rifles armed with kryptonite bullets. J'onn and Vasquez posed as bank robbers and the bank was filled with DEO agents acting as hostages. J'onn and Vasquez made a big show of breaking into the bank and threatening their "captives" as they waited for Reign to make an appearance. Just as Vasquez decided to pretend to beat one of the hostages, Reign crashed through the ceiling. "You are thieves. A disease allowed to fester unchecked in this wretched city and I have come to cure it. I have come to dispense justice upon you all for I am Reign."

"Not so fast," Kara bellowed as she floated down through the hole Reign had left in the roof. "You may believe that you are truth and justice, but this is no way to solve a problem."

"She's right," J'onn said as he and Vasquez removed their masks. "You believe that you are the judge, jury, and executioner, but you're wrong," J'onn continued as he took his Martian form.

"Martian," Reign sneered. "You are no better than the Kryptonians. You too must be punished naivete."

"Perhaps, but not today," J'onn replied as he threw a chunk of Black Kryptonite at Reign.

"Fool, did you think that would actually work?" Reign scoffed as she advanced toward J'onn and Vasquez. She took several steps before she gasped and fell to her knees as she screamed out. Sam appeared by Reign's side as the Worldkiller split in two. Sam took in her surroundings with confusion on her face as Kara carefully approached her while reign continued writhing in pain.

"Sam, we have to go. Now," Kara whispered.

"Supergirl? How do you know my name?"

"Sam, I'll explain everything, but we have to leave _now._ " Sam nodded and Kara picked her up and flew out of the bank in the direction of the DEO. Reign gingerly rose to her feet and roared at J'onn and Vasquez.

"Sorry, not sorry," Vasquez said as she aimed her red sun gun at Reign and blasted her. Just as the red beam stopped, two simultaneous gunshots rang out as Lucy and Alex shot Reign in the head and chest. J'onn rushed forward to check her pulse and found none. He nodded at the agents and two agents quickly grabbed Reign's body to load in the DEO van. Once her body was in the van, Alex quickly jumped behind the wheel and sped to the DEO as the rest of the agents in the bank either made their way back to headquarters or went home depending on their role.

* * *

 _January 1, 2019; 9:30 pm_

The weary agents walked into the DEO relishing the fact that Reign had finally been defeated and that National City wasn't under siege anymore. As soon as Lena saw Kara walking into the DEO, she ran to her girlfriend and threw herself onto the blonde as she wrapped her arms around Kara. Maggie threw her arms around Alex and gave her a not-so-chaste kiss as Eliza fondly watched her daughters reunite with their girlfriends after a long and arduous day. J'onn and Vasquez silently took Reign's body to the morgue. Lena put a hand on Kara's cheek and roughly pulled Kara toward her so she could kiss the hero. The two couples reveled in their victory for several minutes until they were interrupted by a sheepish Mon-El. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak you." Kara and Lena nodded and followed Mon-El to a room just off the side of the command center. "The Legion and I are returning to the future. We're not needed here anymore."

"I don't understand," Lena said.

"We had come here because in our timeline, Kara was unable to defeat Reign and instead of emerging from her coma, Kara died. But instead, Kara woke up and was able to give the DEO a solution for defeating her. When timelines change, it takes time for the changes to 'set,' so when we came back to 2018, we still remembered the 'original' timeline. But our memories began changing after a few days, so we let the events that transpired play out because we didn't know exactly what happened and didn't want to interfere."

"What happened to change the timeline?" Kara asked.

"Lena did. Lena's fate changed and because of that, you two began dating. Your relationship gave Kara the final push of motivation to return instead of choosing to die. With Kara alive and able to convey what her father had told her, everything changed. By the way, Ms. Luthor, I never got to thank you for your company's efforts." Lena looked at Mon-El with a confused expression. "Your company comes up with the cure to the Daxamites' lead allergy in a few years, which allowed me to come back. So, thank you. Truly."

"You're welcome, Mon-El. You have no idea how much it means to know that LCorp really does become the force of good I wanted it to be."

"Oh, it does. I can't tell you too much, but I can tell you that LCorp changes the world for the better with its technology. Your company actually helped save the Earth from a mass extinction event several centuries from now." Mon-El sighed and turned to Kara, "It was good to see you, Kara. I have something to give to you actually." He reached up to his neck and carefully removed the necklace from around his neck. "Your mother's necklace helped keep me going through some difficult times. But, it's time to give it back. After all, it was your mother's." He placed the necklace in Kara's hand and turned around to leave.

"Thank you," Kara said. Mon-El nodded and left to return to his ship. Lena wrapped her arm around Kara's waist and rested her head on Kara's shoulder.

"You know what's funny?" Kara hummed in response to Lena's question. "I had a dream about Mon-El returning your necklace, but it didn't go nearly as smoothly."

"What?"

"I'll tell you later," Lena laughed.

* * *

Kara proposed to Lena on September 25th, exactly one year to the day that they began dating. Lena, naturally, said yes. Kara and Lena got married eight months later.

Maggie and Alex finally got to have the biggest, gayest wedding in National City a month after Kara proposed. J'onn walked Alex down the aisle and that day, the agents of the DEO learned that Agent Danvers and Director Henshaw really can cry. Two years and three rounds of IVF later, Alex gave birth to their daughter Jamie Danvers-Sawyer. When Jamie was three, Maggie gave birth to a son named Jeremiah Danvers-Sawyer. The two women took in an orphaned alien girl named Dara another year later. J'onn was very happy to serve in his new role as space grandpa.

Sam recovered from the trauma of learning what she had done as Reign. Even though she retained her powers, Sam chose not to take on any superhero duties until Ruby had left for college. Eight years later, Justice appeared in National City, allowing Kara to take a step back and spend more time more time with Lena and their kids, Alexander and Lori. Ruby, who didn't inherit any of her mother's powers except super speed and invulnerability, joined the DEO and quickly rose through the ranks to eventually lead her own strike team alongside her aunt Alex and her slightly nerdier aunt, Kara.

In 2025, Alex and Lena succeeded in creating a serum that gave humans extended life spans. Lena was one of the few to receive it, allowing her to live a long, happy life together with her family. Lena Danvers-Luthor was actually the scientist that was able to create the cure for the Daxamites' lead allergy that led to Mon-El being able to come back and stir up some unpleasant emotions for Kara, setting in motion the events that brought them to where they are now. The two women decided it was worth it in the end.

And so, all was well.

* * *

Chapter 4 was taken down to be edited and rewritten because it turned out that the original amnesia scene that I wrote was unintentionally rather close to the events of "Nothing On You" by capricious-wind. After getting in touch with the author, it was agreed that this chapter would be removed and rewritten.


End file.
